Stowaways busted for theft in Japan

Four stowaways were arrested in South Korea and Japan on suspicion of smuggling themselves into Japan in 2016 and committing theft, police said Tuesday.

The international crime investigation team at the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency also charged 17 others without detention over the alleged smuggling case.

According to the team, the four, including a 59-year-old woman, illegally entered a port in Shimonoseki, Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture, after boarding a tug boat at a port in the southeastern coastal city of Busan on Dec. 28, 2016 and hiding themselves on the boat’s warehouse for 10 hours.

After months of theft in Japan, the four were arrested by Japanese police last year. Three of the four were imprisoned in Japan, while South Korean police took the fourth into custody, who turned himself into local police when he was deported to South Korea.

South Korean police are discussing with their Japanese counterparts the extradition of the three at an early date.

The chief of the boat and six other men are suspected of having helped the four illegally enter Japan, while eight other people were allegedly involved in the arrangement of illegally entering into the neighboring country.

The police said the four paid 52 million won (around $47,488) to the men and 20 million won to the other eight. The police added that they had also charged two other people for an alleged attempt to smuggle themselves into Japan.